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FILE - In Tuesday, Aug. 7, 2012 file photo, candidates for the 9th Congressional seat Martha Zoller, left, and state Rep. Doug Collins, far right, both land at the same location stumping for votes at the Dahlonega-Lumpkin Chamber After Hours event in Hancock Park, Dahlonega. Collins, a lawmaker with ties to the governor, faces conservative talk show host Zoller in the Aug. 21 GOP runoff for the 9th Congressional District, which covers Gainesville and a large part of north Georgia. The candidates have focused heavily on proving their conservative credentials.(AP Photo/Atlanta Journal & Constitution, Curtis Compton, File) MARIETTA DAILY OUT; GWINNETT DAILY POST OUT; LOCAL TV OUT; WXIA-TV OUT; WGCL-TV OUT

GAINESVILLE — In north Georgia, the race for the state’s newest congressional seat couldn’t be tighter as a state lawmaker with ties to the governor faces off in a Republican runoff against a conservative radio talk show host with support from Sarah Palin, Rick Santorum, Newt Gingrich and Herman Cain.

Just over 700 of the nearly 110,000 votes cast separated state Rep. Doug Collins and Martha Zoller in last month’s GOP primary for the 9th Congressional District, and the winner of the Aug. 21 runoff will have a substantial edge in November in the heavily Republican region. In fact, much of the campaign has focused on who is more conservative and whether political experience is a disadvantage when it comes to being in Congress.

Collins says his six-year voting record in the General Assembly proves he is a conservative, a point he emphasized during a recent forum held by the Lanier Tea Party Patriots.

“This is what we can do because we’ve already done it, is taking north Georgia values and putting them in Washington,” he said.

Zoller’s pitch comes from her talk-radio roots.

“I want to be your conservative firebrand voice in Congress,” she said. “It is great to be here and be part of the exciting thing that happened in that primary — almost 60 percent of the people voted against the status quo.”

The newly drawn congressional district sits in the heart of Georgia’s Appalachian country, one of the most politically conservative regions in the state. In the final weeks of the election, Zoller and Collins have attacked each other’s conservative credentials in cable TV ads, emails and numerous small forums. Collins has criticized Zoller as being weak on social issues like gay rights and abortion. Zoller has painted Collins as a political insider who supported an unpopular referendum to raise taxes.

The third-place finisher, Roger Fitzpatrick, a retired school principal making his first bid for office, won 17 percent of the vote, leaving a pool of unaligned Republicans who could swing the race. Democrat Jody Cooley has qualified for the November ballot, though faces an uphill climb given the GOP’s strength in the district.

Endorsements in the race reflect the experience-verse-change argument. Collins counts support from high-profile politicians who live locally, including Gov. Zell Miller whose grandson is managing the campaign and House Speaker David Ralston. By contrast, Zoller’s best-known endorsements are national political figures. Palin, the former Alaska governor, and former GOP presidential candidates Santorum, Gingrich and Cain have recorded robocalls for Zoller. Cain has also stumped in the district.

Last month’s primary also opened a new liability for Collins, one that Zoller is trying to exploit. Collins, like most Republican state lawmakers, voted to authorize a transportation referendum in 2010. If approved, new transportation infrastructure would have been built by increasing the sales tax. But the proposal sparked opposition from tea party groups, which viewed it as a tax hike. Nearly three-quarters of voters cast ballots against the measure in the 9th District.

“I see you voting for it because that’s what the party line was down there,” Mike Scupin, 67, a Zoller supporter, told Collins at the tea party forum. “What’s to make me think, if you’re representing me in Washington, that you’re not going to do party-line votes, which is what gets us into so much trouble up there when you go?”

Collins said he supported giving voters a say and personally voted against the plan in the referendum.

“When you look at my record, and you can choose to agree or disagree, the one thing you’re not going to find is someone who simply votes yes because someone else tells them to,” Collins told Scupin.

Zoller has her own challenges. While she does not having a long voting record like Collins, Zoller has spent years expressing her views in radio and TV appearances.

Collins has seized on a passage in Zoller’s 2005 book “Indivisible: Uniting Values for a Divided America,” in which she wrote: “I do believe abortion is wrong, but it should not be outlawed. It is a medical care issue, and if a woman needs to have an abortion, I would never want her to have substandard medical care.”

In the context of her book, Zoller makes the case that conservatives must change people’s minds against abortion, not just try to ban it. She praised President Bush for saying that changing laws would not change the rate of abortions.

In a recent interview, Zoller said she only supports abortion when a pregnancy threatens the life of the mother — a position accepted by Georgia Right To Life, which has endorsed both Collins and Zoller.

Collins has also used Zoller’s comments on civil unions as a wedge. In this campaign, Zoller said she categorically opposes civil unions for gay couples. In a 2009 interview on CNN, Zoller said she believed judges could eventually strike down a law forbidding the federal government from recognizing same-sex marriages.

“And then we’re going to have to go back to the drawing board,” Zoller said, according to a transcript. “I don’t advocate same-sex marriage. I have not changed my view on that. I do support civil unions, though. I think it’s a legal issue.”

She made a similar argument a few days earlier in an article for “Human Events Online,” although she used the phrase “civil contracts” instead of civil unions.

Voters in the district seem split. Collins supporters often cite his political experience. Loraine Haygood, 63, who attended a Collins fundraiser in Toccoa, said she wanted someone who understands the legislative process.

John Lipscomb, 66, who attended the tea party forum in Gainesville, voted for Fitzpatrick in the primary but planned to support Zoller in the runoff. A Baptist deacon, Lipscomb said he opposes abortion and gay unions and believes Collins is distorting Zoller’s views on social issues.

“I just feel like he’s more of an insider than Martha is,” Lipscomb said, of Collins. “Not to say that Martha’s an outsider, but you know, I don’t want to say the lesser of two evils — that’s just too much — but basically, I like Martha. I like what she says.”

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